Spheres that are located at or near the end of a cable can have a number of uses. A typical use would be to deploy the cable and attached sphere from a vehicle. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,889 discloses the deployment of a sphere at the end of a coaxial transmission feed line from an aircraft for use as an antenna. In this situation the cable is extended by deploying it through a suitably sized opening in the fuselage of an aircraft to trail the cable and the attached sphere behind the aircraft. As indicated in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,889 this antenna configuration provides an efficient antenna with very low loss that also exhibits minimal aerodynamic drag when deployed from the aircraft. The antenna is also comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.
The antenna disclosed in this patent is capable of being used both for transmitting and receiving information and it has substantially uniform transmission and reception characteristics in three dimensional space. Such features are highly desirable for both communication and surveillance.
It has also been proposed to use such a cable and sphere system with a spacecraft and in particular a spinning spacecraft that would spin cables and spheres near the outer end portions of the cables around the spinning spacecraft. Such proposed spacecraft usage presents serious problems for storing the sphere and cable system during the launch of the spacecraft and while the spacecraft is travelling to its destination in space since the spacecraft is subjected to large G loads as well as vibrations that could damage the spheres and associated structure. Such G loads and vibrations are generally not present with aircraft or at least no where near the magnitude of the G loads and vibrations that a spacecraft will experience.
The actual deployment of the cable sphere system from an aircraft is comparatively simple and a simple manually operated reel type device could be used. However, the actual deployment from a spinning spacecraft is much more complex in order to deploy the cables and attached spheres so that they are properly oriented around the spacecraft.
The sphere and cable deployer invention deploys a plurality of spheres connected to one cable at two different locations along the cable and hence the previously mentioned problems are aggravated due to the complexity associated with the storage and deployment of a plurality of spheres on one cable. In spite of these potential problems, the sphere and cable deployer invention is constructed to provide for the safe launch of a multiple sphere and cable system in a spacecraft and then the deployer has provision for sequentially deploying the spheres and associated cable portions outside the spacecraft as the spacecraft rotates so as to enable the spheres and cable to be properly located around the spacecraft.